Tristan's first trip to Victoria

Now that I'm almost recovered from my stomach flu, I can blog about our adventure last weekend.  Last weekend, we brought Tristan on the ferry over to Victoria for Chinese New Year.  He met his uncle Wayne, uncle Bill, and cousin Jayde for the first time.  His grandparents, my parents, have not seen him since his birth 2 months ago.  We also got to visit my good friend and her family.  She had her baby boy just 2 weeks before Tristan arrived.

Overall, the trip wasn't as stressful as I thought it would be.  I was prepared to nurse in public if I had to but it wasn't necessary.  We carried bottled breastmilk with us on the way to the ferries.  This was the excess milk I had pumped the night before.  Tristan actually slept most of the trip so he wasn't that hungry and when he drank, he didn't need much.  We ended up throwing most of the milk away but that was okay.

I had packed plenty of clothes for Tristan, in case of emergency, and it was a good thing too.  He had several poopy accidents!  Since we were only gone for 2 nights, we didn't have to bathe Tristan until we got back but we had to be careful that he didn't get too dirty.  That was why I performed most of the diaper changes :)

In some ways, the trip was a nice relief for me since I didn't have to carry Tristan so much.  My parents, especially wanted to carry and talk to him so it was a break for us.  As a result, Tristan cried less.  My dad was very good with him.  He didn't cry when my dad carried him but when he was passed back to Jean-Louis, Tristan started crying again.  The fact that my dad can console Tristan probably makes Jean-Louis feel even more inadequate and me, less special.  I guess he is still too young to only recognize us.  He still allows most people to carry him.

Another thing I observed was that he started to suck his hand for the first time.  He hasn't found his thumb yet so he's got his knuckle in there.  I think it's good because this way he will be able to soothe himself whenever he needs to, instead of relying on us or a pacifier.

The final thing I wanted to report was that Tristan had his longest sleep on record in Victoria.  That first night he slept 8 hours straight!  Yay!  It hasn't happened again but I can't really complain since I only have to feed him once at night now.  He normally sleeps anywhere from 4-6 hours straight every night.